Playing doctor: Simulation in medical school as affective practice

Abstract

Simulated patient encounters, in which a trained layperson role-plays a patient, have become increasingly important in medical education. One such type is the gynecological teaching associate (GTA), who teaches medical students how to perform the pelvic examination using her own body. This paper considers the role that simulation like the GTA session plays in medical students' professional socialization. Drawn from interviews and archival sources gathered from medical students, medical faculty, and GTAs, this paper explores the tensions between artificiality and authenticity in order to understand how, through pedagogical practice, medical students come to embody medical culture through simulation. This paper uses the theoretical framework of the medical habitus to understand the role of emotion in medical student socialization. It argues that simulation is an example of affective practice: any rehearsal of techniques or styles of expressing, experiencing, or managing emotion that reshape the body's capacity to feel.